Promises made, promises kept. That’s the basis for President Donald Trump’s visit to Ohio today (March 11), as he touts TrumpRX, a new website offering popular prescription drugs at reduced prices. During the presidential campaign, he promised Americans he would grant the United States favored-nation status to lower prescription drug costs.
Trump is visiting Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Reading pharmaceutical company, where he will discuss the new quasi-public/private prescription drug partnership. A White House spokesperson remarked that it will be part and parcel of “the rest of his Administration’s aggressive efforts to lower prices and make America more affordable.”
The homepage of TrumpRX.gov advertises the program by saying that it is “rewriting the script, bringing major savings on essential medications for all Americans.” In bold print, the website claims US citizens are paying up to 1,000% more for certain popular prescriptions – a fact the president finds “unacceptable.” But now prices are being slashed for the new GLP-1 drugs, which have been so effective in helping Americans lose weight, and for the commonly prescribed IVF fertility drug Gonal-F, whose price will drop by 83%.
So, for example, Wegovy injections go from $1,349 a month to $199. Ozempic goes from $1,028 to $199 a month, and Zepbound from $1,087 to $299 a month. To make the system user-friendly, the website tells visitors to have their doctors send prescriptions to their regular pharmacy, and the discount will be automatically applied. For some medications, coupons will be available at TrumpRX for use at the patient’s pharmacy of choice.
More than 50 medications are available at much lower prices on the website.
Prescription Drugs – How the Program Works
Favored Nation Status (FNS) means American pricing reflects the lowest cost for the prescription drug in a group of “peer countries.” If Australia, for instance, is paying only $199 a month for Ozempic, that’s what folks in the United States will pay. This means no more price gouging, nor will American citizens be forced to subsidize the cost of medications in other countries.
Pharmaceutical companies voluntarily take part in the program and negotiate an acceptable price point with the Trump administration. Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and other major drugmakers are participating.
The Big Picture
According to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), “The U.S. spends more than other countries for prescription drugs,” projecting “retail prescription drug spending was estimated to account for nearly 11% of total personal health care services spending in the United States in 2022.” To provide a frame of reference, US citizens spent a total of $2.7 billion in 1960 on prescription drugs. In 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimated that Americans would spend $556.6 billion.
By far, the United States spends more per capita on pharmaceuticals than any other country in the world, $1,491 per person. The second-highest payout comes from Germany but is significantly lower, $995 per individual. For example, the drug Humira was six times higher in the United States than in Germany (2022), according to Statista. Until Trump came along, Americans had to pay whatever the market would bear. Now the government has stepped into the fray and is requiring drug companies to negotiate more reasonable prices.
While TrumpRX offers only a few more than 50 drugs among the thousands, it’s a start, and with skyrocketing costs, the administration had to begin somewhere.
